What's Important
by Jestress
Summary: Filler for Car Wars. Lee's thoughts as he goes to pick up Amanda.


**Disclaimer:** The characters in this story are from the tv show Scarecrow and Mrs. King and do not belong to me. I have not received any money for writing this. (Jestress sighs wistfully.)

**Explanation:** This is just a little filler for Car Wars. Lee was pretty upset about all the things that kept happening to Gino's car, and he was angry at Amanda when he thought that the rear-ending was her fault. But when the car is finally stolen and Amanda is threatened, Lee begins to realize that there is something more sinister about the car than he thought. This is what I imagined was going on in his head while he was driving over to meet her.

**What's Important**

**by Jestress**

Lee ran out of the bullpen toward the elevator, passing Billy at top speed without saying a single word. He'd just gotten off the phone with Amanda, and he knew that he had to get to her as quickly as possible.

As he was driving to meet Amanda, he took some time to think. What had possessed him to get Gino to give Amanda that car? He thought that it would just be a harmless little favor to Amanda, getting her a car to tide her over until hers was fixed. Blackmailing Gino hadn't bothered Lee's conscience at all. Gino often got pretty full of himself, and there was no harm in humbling him a bit now and then. But, ever since Amanda had taken possession of that car, nothing had gone right.

First, there was the rear-ending. He couldn't believe that Amanda, who was normally a good driver, had done that. She'd had the car for less than an hour, and it was already damaged. Of course, she wasn't to blame for the next disaster. Who could have known that someone would steal the tires while they were at Nedlindgers?

Amanda wasn't to blame for this latest fiasco, either. If she was right and the men who took the car were the same ones from the rear-ending accident, there was more going on with this car than Lee had thought. Those people must have been following that car around all day. That meant that they had also been following Amanda all day. There was a tightness in Lee's chest as he thought about it.

Lee was sorry now that he'd yelled over the phone when Amanda told him that the car had been stolen. She'd been panicky and rambling because someone had pulled a knife on her and taken the car. Then, Lee had yelled, upset because he could just imagine what Gino would say when he found out. He'd demanded to know where Amanda was and told her to stay right there until he came to get her. That was silly, of course. Where could she have gone without a car?

Now that Lee's shock over the car's sudden disappearance had faded, he realized that he was more worried about Amanda than anything else. She'd assured him that she was alright when she first told him about the man with the knife, but Lee felt a little sick at the thought of someone pointing a knife at Amanda. Even if they hadn't hurt her, they could have. She'd been all alone, unarmed, defenseless. They could have stabbed her. They could have forced her into the car and taken her with them. How many hours would it have been before Lee found out? If she'd disappeared, would he have had any way of finding her?

The business Lee and Amanda were in could be dangerous even under the best of circumstances. On every case he and Amanda handled together, Lee had done his best to look after her, to make sure that she was safe. That was never easy even under the best of circumstances, either. But if anything happened to Amanda because of something that Lee had given her, he'd never forgive himself.

A terrible thought occurred to him. What if she wasn't there when he arrived at the dry cleaners, where she said that she'd be waiting? What if those men came back for her for some reason before he could get to her? Lee drove as fast as he reasonably could, anxious to get to Amanda before anything else could happen to her. When it came right down to it, he really didn't care what happened to Gino's car as long as Amanda was safe.

Fortunately, Lee saw Amanda right away as he pulled up to the dry cleaner's. She looked rather forlorn, leaning against a sign post with her arms full of dry cleaning, but at least she was alright. That was what was important.

Lee's first impulse was to run up to her, grab her, and hug her tightly, but he controlled himself. They needed to be cool-headed about this. He got out of the car and walked briskly toward Amanda, already forming the questions in his head that he would need to ask her about the men who took the car.

Amanda gave him the best description of the men that she could. It wasn't quite as detailed as Lee had hoped, but then he could see that she was still shaken by what had happened. She rattled on about all the things that had gone wrong with the car, including needing a new muffler, something which Lee hadn't known about before. However, he let the comment pass as Amanda clumsily began dropping her dry cleaning. He helped her pick everything up, reassuring her that everything was alright now and that all that really mattered to him was the fact that she was safe.

To his surprise, he found himself clutching her arm as he tried to soothe her. She gave him a little smile. Well, she seemed calmer now at least. Maybe she really needed that little touch. To be honest, it made him feel a little better, too. Lee guided Amanda back to his car. Now that she was with him, she was really safe, and that really was what was important.


End file.
